Speculative Evolution Wiki:Competitions/Comp. 3: Life Within Our Solar System/Zoendosphaera
Titan is a haven for life, however in a unique and bizarre form; its atmosphere is rich in organonitrogen and its surface as liquid hydrocarbons, which can be used as a solvent rather than water, which freezes in this very cool environment. Its methane cycle serves as an analog to the water cycle. Due to the different chemicals that form its hydrosphere and atmosphere, the biochemistry of its life forms are different than those in our world; for example, C2H6 are used as solvents, instead of H2O, which can degrade large organic molecules. They use 2H for respiration instead, exhaling CH2, rendering them anaerobic. Due to its thick atmosphere, chemical signatures cannot be located. One of the most abundant forms of life is the order Zoendospharae, and despite its relatively simple bauplan, they had diversified and remained relatively unchanged for millions of years of their existence. They are truly neotenous, they retain their hydrocarbon-filled ovum until death, and thus, they reproduce by parthenogenesis, the ovum and the organism itself rapidly goes through mitosis over the course of several months, and a miniature version of the animal is formed in a separate ovum. Zoendospharaens possess a typically transparent or translucent epidermis and dermis and a boomerang shaped head which change their direction with ease. They have a primitive central nervous system and on the end of this is an enlarged, dense area of nerves which controls all of the organisms’ functions. Complex eyes are also present; sense is the primary method of navigating their environment, another way to navigate their environment is by hearing, there is a long tube filled with fluid and tiny hairs, and these tiny hairs detect minute changes in the fluid, and this is converted into nerve signals by the auditory nerve. Their nervous system is restricted to the head and there is a system to help move the head, there are two lobe-shaped fluid filled organs called vascular bulbs, to move the head upwards, the lower vascular bulb is engorged with erectional fluids, and vice versa, although this method is primitive, it is energy-efficient, and together with the fact that they are polikothermic, not homeothermic, they can live for longer periods of time without food, as a consequence, they reproduce slower. One of the most notable features of this order is a long organ that resembles an umbilical cord, and it is often referred as an umbilical cord, however its proper term is the copula alimentum. It contains three body systems. The first one is a circulatory/respiratory system, which is responsible for transferring nutrients and dissolved CH2 which is used for chemical energy; it consists of veins, arteries, a heart, and gills. The gills line the ovum, absorbing deuterium (also known as 2H or heavy hydrogen) directly from air. The second system is the lower gastrointestinal system and endocrine system, which both fused together. An unitubulal tract starts from the start of the upper digestive tract and from there divides into smaller chambers which collect waste for temporary lengths of time, later expelling them through a method similar to emesis, contractions will cause the unitubula to forcefully expel all of its contents through a small orifice known as the ova mouth, which is homologous to the cloaca, however it also serves a purpose similar to the mouth and the anus. The third system is the upper gastrointestinal system, which is sometimes regarded as the part of the lower gastrointestinal system, thus forming the complete gastrointestinal system. It starts from a separate tract; it feeds bacteria through the ova mouth, which then enters an esophagus, then into the large intestine which releases enzymes to partially digest the bacteria. The immunologically weakened bacteria enters the smaller intestines which contains small organs called digestive kidneys, which is inhabited by endosymbiotic bacteria-killing macroscopic organisms which release poison which kills the bacteria altogether, they also release enzymes which completely digest the bacteria, feathery structures absorb the nutrients from the bacteria.